Eschalon: Book II - v1.05 and The Secret of Fathamurk Released

October 30th, 2010, 03:01

Basilisk Games has released the v1.05 patch for Eschalon II. With this patch you also get the add-on adventure The Secret of Fathamurk for free.
This add-on is for high-level characters of level 15 or more. You can go to this area at any time regardless of your level. More info on The Secret of Fathamurk can be found here.
You can view all of the changes for the patch here. If you bought the game through Steam, Impulse, Gamersgate or any of the others then you probably won't get the patch and add-on until at least Monday.

this is a GREAT example of how a good game developer shows love for its fans . Not only do they release a patch for issues in the game But they throw in 5-10 hour mini add-on FOR FREE !!! Bioware = not release patches to fix the game and charging you 3 dollars for 15 seconds of content . Bioware will crumble. Thank you Basilisk games.

I thought this was pretty classy as well. Vic Davis did something similar and released a bunch of mini-add-ons to his game Armageddon Empires just like Basilisk added this. It means a lot when a developer will go out of their way to enhance their games experience for free.

I thought the whole "Bioware will crumble" thing was over the top as well, but you have to take into consideration that indies normally are just a one man team. Doing things like this takes up the one resource they never have enough of……time.

Bioware may have overhead, but they are not in a constant struggle for survival all of the time.

Of course not, but one could also see this update as PR and trying to get more sales. New content for free = More content for your money, it gets the game into the news on various sites, people'll check it out and (hopefully) buy it.

It works various ways That said, Eschalon is not cheap for an Indie title.

That's true, but it still is a gamble. It's taking time away from patching up the game further or starting a whole new game. Although, I'll grant you that it is a good PR bit and will hopefully drive sales up again. I've read enough on indie businesses to know that they can not have the same business plan as the AAA publishers. I know that's common sense. An indie can not rely on having a huge money maker in the first few weeks of release. They make their money slowly over time. There was a great interview with Vic Davis that had a whole new business model for indies, but I can't find it anymore. I'll have to go searching through these forums one day to find it again. I've posted it in multiple threads.

Now about 25 dollars being "not cheap". That is not true at all. It falls between the normal price range for quality indies. I made a list a long time ago on the prices of indies. I'm not doing that again. It took me quite a while to hunt them all down, but suffice it to say that 20 - 30 dollars for a quality indie is about norm.

When I say quality I mean games that are not the throw away junk indie games that you can make very easily. Pretty much anything on bigfish. Those are a dime a dozen. The quality indies are Eschalon, Din's curse, Knights of the Chalice, Armageddon Empires etc….

Ok then, I lied, I'll give you a very short list of some great indies off the top of my head no more than this though. It's a pain to track them all down :

I normally disagree with anything that Jeff Vogel has to say about games, but when it comes to his business there is no better source to go to than him. He's been doing this thing and staying alive longer than most independent developers.

Here are a few links on what he has to say on the pricing of independent games. The first two are from last year. The third is the latest one.

Now I'm not knocking you for thinking they are not cheap. I just find it interesting that a lot of people do say that when in fact the $20 - $30 range is about the norm. Any cheaper and we would get throw away junk food like games.

Edit: I just noticed I'm over the 3,000 mark for posts. WooHoo Silly, I know, but I have to say something every time I make another 1,000 posts

-- Despite all my rage.
I'm still just a rat in a cage.

Last edited by skavenhorde; October 30th, 2010 at 17:27.
Reason: over 3,000

I see your point, and I'm not going to argue that it's hardly "expensive" either, just that it's more expensive than a lot of indie titles I've seen. Deathspank is £10, Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is £4, Uh… Well, we could be here all day debating it

I won't deny Eschalon is of good quality, either. Just wish I hadn't got it on Impulse (Well, I got it roughly half-price on Impulse) as I really like the music, and I want the soundtrack Plus they're terrible when it comes to Eschalon's updates. 1.04 went up a couple of weeks ago

As for having massive overhead on triple A titles… Those big dog companies have no problem shrinking down overhead when its necesary . When i mentioned Bioware it was not to see people loose jobs , But… they no longer care for the fans or making great RPG's

I don't quite have the hate for Bioware that you seem to do, but it's a free internet….sorta…..so rant away my friend

@Dwagginz I should have clarified. I meant RPGs and even some of the more complex strategy games. Some being the keyword there

*shiver* Deathspank *shiver* No comment on that one.

Thanks for bringing to my attention The Misadventures of P.B. I love the art style on that…puzzle/2d scroller??? Not sure what kind of game it is, but it definitely looks good. Sucks that it's only on the XBOX 360.

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
Thanks for bringing to my attention The Misadventures of P.B. I love the art style on that…puzzle/2d scroller??? Not sure what kind of game it is, but it definitely looks good. Sucks that it's only on the XBOX 360.

Fellow gamer, thank you for respecting my comments . I do resent bioware for treating us the customers like children , but i guess that is who they make there games for . I guess i need to understand the direction that gaming is going , I used to love Bioware and have a high expectation for there games ,Who knows maybe i will be wrong and DA2 will be a deep meaningfull, inspiring RPG with character developing choices. sorry for being of topic.thanks for reading guys. Happy Gaming.

Yea, I don't have much hope for DA2 either. There is a little there, but not much. It's still too early to tell, but I certainly do not feel as excited about this game as I did DA:O. I'm not hearing anything about returning to their roots like they kept talking about last time. As a matter of fact they seem to be going in the opposite direction and proud of it. Oh well, I still have indies that will fill in the gap that Bioware might just leave us with.

However with that said, Obsidian stepped up to the plate this time around and hit a homerun on an engine that I didn't think it was possible to make such a good rpg. If Bioware falls then Obsidian and indies will take their place. There still is a market for our type of games and if there is a market then someone will provide them.

I have an odd feeling that Bethesda will be the new Interplay - Just look at their line up. Themselves, inXile w/ Hunted (Brian Fargo's company) and Obsidian w/ New Vegas (Remnants of Black Isle, IIRC). If they can keep inXile and Obsidian working for them, along with keeping Interplay in line, I don't see why they can't help bring back the RPG market.

To be honest, BioWare have no major competitors. Bethesda do more open-world RPGs, inXile do action RPGs (Bard's Tale & Hunted), and Obsidian do a bit of everything. I don't think Obsidian could be the ring leader, but I think they'd make a damn fine studio under Bethesda's wing (I'm not saying Bethesda should buy them, but keep them close by).

Brian Fargo's doing Hunted??? Hmm interesting. I know about that game in passing, but since it was Beth I didn't take a good look at it.

Before F:NV I would have said you're nuts if you think they could become the new Interplay. After NV, you just might be right. They've shown that they can let someone else play with their toys and make something amazing.

I'm going to have to check out Brian's game now. I heard a rumor a long time ago that Inxile bought the rights to wasteland or they were in the process of buying the rights. Not sure whatever came of that, but with beth backing them it might be interesting to see if they can do something with that.

Yeah, AFAIK inXile have the rights to Wasteland again. I don't know if Brian is involved with Hunted, but he did found inXile after leaving Interplay. Best term to sum Hunted up is "Gears of Warcraft", to be honest, but it looks different enough to be good. Certainly very polished in all the videos and screenies I've seen so far.